Zimbabwean Sister Blames Church for Brother’s Death, Victim of UK Child Abuser

A Zimbabwean woman attributes her brother’s death to the Church of England. Her 16-year-old brother drowned while swimming unclothed at a Christian holiday camp in Zimbabwe, which was operated by convicted child abuser John Smyth. Edith Nyachuru stated to the BBC, “The Church knew about the abuses that John Smyth was doing. They should have stopped him. Had they stopped him, I think my brother [Guide Nyachuru] would still be alive.” The British barrister, John Smyth, relocated from Winchester, England, to Zimbabwe in 1984 with his wife and four children, where he intended to work with an evangelistic organization. This relocation occurred two years after an inquiry disclosed that Smyth had subjected boys in the UK to traumatic physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. Many of these boys had been encountered at Christian holiday camps managed by a Church-linked charity over which he presided. The 1982 report, authored by Anglican clergyman Mark Ruston, detailed the canings and described “the scale and severity of the practice was horrific.” It included testimonies of boys who were beaten to the point of bleeding, with one individual recounting the necessity of wearing nappies until his injuries healed. Despite these disturbing findings, which primarily concerned boys from elite British public schools, the Ruston report did not achieve widespread distribution. Ten years later, at the age of 50